WESTPHALIA - Hunter Bax couldn't play baseball his junior season because of an injury. Then he missed his senior season because of a virus.
Thanks to the summer league, he's getting a shot to play for the Fatima Comets this year after all.
"He would have been a big part of the state Final Four team last year," Fatima coach Brian Bax said Thursday night following a doubleheader against the Jefferson City Jays.
Bax struck out all six batters he faced Thursday in the second game to help secure a 5-2 victory in five innings.
"He's got a good changeup and a good curveball," Brian Bax said. "He throws them in any count, at any time he wants, he's not afraid."
The Jays scored the first nine runs of the first game and won 9-2 in six innings.
"The first game we were not focused," Bax said. "It's like we're not ready. We give up an early lead and we can't get back."
The first three Jays reached on two walks and a hit by pitch before Grant Straub sent a grounder to right field to score a pair of runs.
Jefferson City was ahead 5-0 by the end of the top of the first after a Jacob Duke groundout drove in a run, and Ethan Dubois and Will Berendzen followed with back-to-back RBI singles.
"Just making some pretty solid contact on the ball for the most part," Jays coach Kyle Lasley said.
Dubois finished with a pair of hits and three RBI, adding a two-RBI single for a 7-0 lead in the third inning.
Berendzen and Brayden Whittle each had a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 9-0.
Straub tossed five innings, allowing one earned run on two hits with five strikeouts and five walks.
"He's not overpowering with anything fastball-wise, but he's going to keep you off balance," Lasley said. "He's gonna throw strikes and make you put the ball in play."
That paid off in the first two innings as shortstop Taylor Hopkins and second baseman Jeremy Parks turned a pair of 6-4-3 double plays.
"Those two, man, they don't skip a beat too often," Lasley said. "They've been playing together since they were probably 11, 12 years old, so they know that they're going to be there for each other. They're both pretty smooth up the middle."
In the second game, Evan Kliethermes for Fatima and Tanner Schmitz for Jefferson City each kept their team in it by only allowing two runs each.
Kliethermes went three innings, surrendering three hits, walking five and striking out three.
Schmitz hit the first batter of the game and walked the second, but escaped with only one run on the board by getting the Comets to groundout with the bases loaded. He pitched four innings, allowing just one hit with two walks and two strikeouts.
On Tuesday against Helias, Schmitz allowed four runs and didn't record an out.
"He responded really well today," Lasley said. "He didn't have such a good outing on Tuesday, just all over the place, couldn't command anything. But he came back and he competed."
Austin Troesser provided the go-ahead hit with a two-run home run in the fifth inning, just clearing the fence in center field for a 4-2 lead.
Troesser, who's signed with Missouri as a pitcher, hit from the No. 9 spot Thursday.
"Not a lot of power," Bax said. "He's normally just a really good contact guy, but he really he sees the ball very well."
Up next for Fatima is a road doubleheader Tuesday against Fulton.
Jefferson City will host former Jays coach Brian Ash and the Southern Boone Eagles on Tuesday at Vivion Field.
Both doubleheaders are scheduled to start at 6 p.m.